Device for the production of carton wrappers for articles



April 17, 1962 J, c -n? 3,029,573

DEVICE FOR THE PRODUCTION OF CARTON WRAPPERS FOR ARTICLES Filed Aug. 10. 1960 INVENTOR. 7 0/1 United States Patent G 3,029,573 DEVTCE POP. THE PRODUCT IGN F CARTON WRAPPERS FOR ARTICLES Jan Tichy, Prague, Czechoslovakia, assignor to Zavody V. 1. Lenina, Plzen, Czechoslovakia Filed Aug. 1t), 1960, Ser. No. 48,633

Claims priority, application Czechoslovakia Aug. 13, 1959 2 Claims. (Cl. 53-492) The present invention relates to a device for the production of wrappers for cigarettes and like articles.

This invention relates more particularly to machines for packing cigarettes or similar articles into paper or metal foil wrappers. On known machines for continuously packing a number of cigarettes arranged in several layers, the wrapper is produced by first cutting a rectangular wrapping foil or blank from a strip wound on a bobbin. The blank enters the packing station from above, and is bent around a hollow mandrel or around the prearranged articles which are conveyed in a horizontal direction. With the aid of stationary or movable shaping sleeves, first the short sides and thereupon the long sides of the blank are bent, so that the short sides are placed inside the wrapper.

The resistance of the wrapping material against bending varies. The bending resiliency of the wrapping material exerts its influence after the bend has been efiected, and the short side walls do not stay in contact with the long side walls. The walls are liable to be deflected from their desired position by their resiliency when the wrappers are formed loosely or when they are empty. The short side walls are deflected when some of the cigarettes near the sides of the packet are taken out and such cigarettes cannot then be returned to the wrapper.

The present invention aims at removing the aforementioned disadvantages of the heretofore known methods for producing cigarette wrappers. According to the main feature of the present invention the final shaping of a blank into a wrapper by means of a hollow mandrel takes place around the packed cigarettes in a device comprising two shaping sleeves adapted for relative movement. To enable one sleeve to carry out its bending operation, the other sleeve performs a rocking movement and is withdrawn for a period of time suflicient for the first bending operation to be carried out. Only when the latter operation is finished, does the other sleeve return to its operative position to perform its bending operation.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 shows the work station of a cigarette wrapping machine at the beginning of the wrapper shaping operation, the view being in elevational section;

FIG. 2 shows the apparatus of FIG. 1 in an intermediate stage of the shaping optration; and

FIG. 3 shows the same apparatus during the finishing operation.

A pack of cigarettes 1 consisting of several layers is fed from a storage trough 11 into the Wrapping station by the front wall of a driver 2 mounted on a continuously moving driving chain 3, and is pushed into a hollow elongated mandrel 4. The bottom walls of the trough 11 and of the mandrel 4 are slotted to permit entry of the driver 2. The mandrel 4 carries out an intermittent horizontal reciprocatory motion in the direction of its longitudinal axis. A foil or blank 9 of wrapping material is placed on top of the mandrel 4 in a known manner. A shaping sleeve is seen in FIG. 1 above the hollow mandrel 4. The sleeve 5 has an open bottom and envelops a portion of the hollow mandrel in the positions of the apparatus illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3. The shaping ice sleeve 5 performs an intermittent reciprocatory motion between the two positions illustrated.

Movement of the sleeve 5 is actuated by a supporting 7 Y column 12 on which the sleeve is fixedly fastened and which is vertically slidable in the stationary frame 13 of the machine. The column 12 is laterally ofiset from the path of the mandrel 4 and also carries a flat bracket 14 which is spaced from the closed top of the sleeve 5 by a distance sufficient to permit the mandrel 4 to pass therebetween. The sidewalls of the sleeve 5 have a downwardly open slot 21 adjacent the column 12.

The rearward end of the sleeve 5, as viewed in the direction of movement of the chain 3 and the driver 2, carries a lug 15 from which a fixedly fastened lifting hook 16 depends. The lug 15 and hook 16 cooperate with a hold-down arm 17 and a detent 16 which are pivotally mounted on the top face of the mandrel 4.

A second shaping or forming sleeve 6 is pivoted to the machine frame by a pin 7. Pivotal movement of the sleeve 6 is actuated by an arm 8 fixedly fastened to flie sleeve 6 and hingedly secured to a rod 10 by a pin 19. The movement of the rod 10 is cam-actuated in a manner well known and not further illustrated. The bottom of the sleeve6 is slotted for passage of the driver 2.

The afore-described apparatus operates as follows:

In the first position of the Work station illustrated in FIG. 1, the sleeve 6 is pivoted into a position in which the longitudinal axis of its passage is aligned with corresponding am'al passages in the trough 11 and the mandrel 4 in the direction of movement of the driver 2. The sleeve 5 is upwardly displaced by the column 12 from a position of alignment of its passage with the passages of the other sleeve 6 and of the mandrel 4. The blank 9 rests on the aligned horizontal top faces of the mandrel 4 and of the sleeve 6, and is located under the bracket 14. The hold-down arm 17 is raised by the lifting hook 16. The mandrel 4 is in a position adjacent the trough 11. The driver 2 is near the entrance opening of the mandrel 4, pushing the cigarette pack 1 ahead of itself.

As the movement of the chain 3 with the driver 2 continues to the position of the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 3, in which the cigarette pack 1 is approximately halfway in the mandrel 4, the column 12 and the rod '10 move jointly downward until the sleeve 5 reaches a position of axial alignment with the mandrel 4. The downward movement of the rod 10 causes the sleeve 6 to pivot counterclockwise as viewed in. FIG. 2 whereby an open gap is formed between the two sleeves.

The rearward edge of the bracket 14 is closely spaced from the mandrel 14 in an axial direction when the latter is in the position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The downward movement of the bracket 14 causes the forward portion of the blank 9 to be bent downward by the bracket edge as shown in FIG. 2. The depending portion of the blank partly enters the slots 21. The pivoting movement of the sleeve 6 withdraws the support furnished to the blank 9 in the position of FIG. 1, and permits the blank to be bent.

As downward movement of the sleeve 5 begins, the hook 11 permits the hold-down arm 17 to drop on the blank 9. The arm secures the position of the rearward portion of the blank 9 on the top face of the mandrel 4 while the forward portion is bent downward by the edge of the bracket 14. The longitudinal inner side walls of the wrapper are simultaneously formed by the descending vertical walls of the sleeve 5.

While movement of the chain 3 with the driver 2 continues towards the position shown in FIG. 3 in which the front face of the cigarette pack 1 is approximately flush with the frontal opening of the mandrel 4, the front portion of the latter is moved horizontally into the open space defined between the closed top of the sleeve 5 and the bracket 14. The slotted bottom of the mandrel 4 thus moves over the rearward edge of the bracket 14 and the dependent portion of the blank 9 shown in FIG. 2 is bent rearward over the lower front edge of the mandrel 4. The front portion of the cigarette pack abuts against the bottom of the wrapper.

Simultaneously with the forward movement of the mandrel 4, the sleeve 6 is pivoted back into the position in which its passage is axially aligned with the mandrel 4 and the sleeve 5 for receiving the cigarette pack 1 with the wrapper partly formed about it as the chain 3 moves the driver 2. The short side walls of the wrapper are bent from the blank portions previously held in the slots 21 as the mandrel 4 engages the sleeve 5.

The forward movement of the mandrel 4 into the position illustrated in FIG. 3 causes the lug 15 to engage the detent 16 whereby the hold-down arm 17 is lifted from the partly formed wrapper blank 9, thus releasing the wrapper from the mandrel 4 and permitting it to be conveyed toward the sleeve 6 under the pressure of the cigarette pack 1 being pushed by the driver 2.

The shaping of the wrapper is finished as the pack of cigarettes passes through the sleeve 6 which is equipped with bending members 20 which bend the remaining longitudinal side walls of the Wrapper. After the pack has passed the sleeve 6, the latter swings downward in order to clear the way for the next wrapper.

The next blank 9 is then taken off a bobbin, cut to the desired length, and positioned as seen in FIG. 1 so that it partly rests on the hollow mandrel 4 and partly on the top face of the sleeve 6 which is in its horizontal position while the sleeve 5 is in its raised position. The next cycle begins.

The movements of several parts of the wrapper shaping mechanism, namely the hollow mandrel 4, the shaping sleeve 5 and the forming sleeve 6 are synchronized so as to provide for an uninterrupted shaping of wrappers with simultaneous, continuous supply of cigarette packs.

By the stepwise shaping of the wrappers, the short side walls of the wrapper are not placed inside the pack, but between the inner and outer long side walls, whereby cigarettes may be taken out of the wrapper and again be returned.

I claim:

1. In a wrapping machine for cigarettes and like objects, in combination, a mandrel; first and second bending sleeve means, said mandrel and said sleeve means each having an axis, and said mandrel and sleeve means being formed With axial passages therethrough; actuating means for moving said mandrel and said sleeve means towards and away from an aligned position in which the passages thereof are aligned in a common aligned axis and said mandrel and said first bending sleeve means are at least partly axially coextensive, said actuating means including means for moving said first sleeve means transversely of said aligned axis toward and away from said position, means for moving said mandrel axially relative to said first sleeve means, and means for pivoting said second sleeve means about a pivot transverse of said aligned axis; and conveying means for axially conveying said objects sequentially through said mandrel, said first sleeve means, and said second sleeve means.

2. In a machine as set forth in claim 1, said mandrel and said second sleeve means having respective axially extending external faces, said faces jointly constituting a support for a Wrapper blank when said mandrel and said second sleeve means are in said aligned position, said support being formed with a gap, and said first sleeve means including bending means for bending a blank supported on said faces into said gap transversely of said common axis, and said actuating means being adapted to pivot said second sleeve means away from said aligned position thereof while said blank is being bent into said gap.

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS 718,031 Great Britain Nov. 10, 1954 

